After iPhone owners in China were hit by the YiSpector Malware in October 2015 when they installed a porn video player, eight months later, it is the turn of Android device owners to be hit by another made-in-China malware.
The impact of the malware, Hummingbad, has gone beyond China but has infected 10 million Android gadgets around the world, reported the New York Daily News. The malware creates fake ad revenue for an Asian advertising company.
Yingmob, an advertising agency based in Beijing, earns $300,000 yearly advertising revenue from the malware which installs a fake app. The company is a legitimate ad and tracking business, but on the side, it engages in some illegal operations, according to TechnoBuffallo.
Check Point, a cybersecurity solutions provider, discovered that the malware – lurking in some Google gadgets in the last few months – had infected a substantial number of devices worldwide, higher than previous expectations. The report said the “The investigation uncovered critical insights on how attackers conduct mobile malware campaigns.”
Of the 10 million affected Android devices, almost 3 million are in China and India, while about 288,000 are in the U.S. The developers of Hummingbad also tried to attack devices made by Apple, but their success rate is higher on Android gadgets.
Phones in South America and Russia, including those running on KitKat and Jelly Bean OS, have also been infected. But among devices running on Android Marshmallow OS, only one percent were infected. Google has yet to release a fix for Hummingbad-affected devices.